There has been a victory for democracy in Okehampton as town councillors agreed to overturn the ban on livestreaming committee meetings during Monday’s meeting (March 27).

The decision follows on from a request from five Okehampton Town Councillors who raised an opposition to the ban and asked the council to reconsider its decision.

Cllr Christine Marsh said: ‘I think the council ought to relook at the decision that was made not to livestream the other committee meetings — they are open to the public and what have we got to hide. It will show the public that we do discuss things in detail; we do debate about it; we do think about it. I just think it’s very important to be open and transparent in all that we do.’

Cllr Julie Yelland echoed Cllr Marsh’s thoughts, saying that livestreaming should ‘serve to liberate councillors rather than constrain them.’

She said: ‘I think one of the principal things of livestreaming is it removes the barriers to the public engagement. Not everyone can get to a face-to-face council meeting for various reasons and it’s important that those who wish to engage can do so with minimal barriers.

‘I think people did express concerns about what they may have have been saying but I think that key thing here is that anything a councillor says in the public part of the meeting can get repeated or reported on by others present in any case and it will be interpreted accordingly. 

‘Whereas if it’s livestreamed then members of the public can hear directly what is being said and, if speaking in accordance with standard orders and the standards required in the councillor’s code of conduct, then a difference of opinion demonstates healthy debate and underpins sound decision-making and offers some sort of explanation to the public for the reasons why decisions are being made so knowing that the meeting is being livestreamed should actually should serve to liberate councillors rather than constrain them as their words will go to a larger audience and be clearly understood.’ 

Councillors subsequently resolved to livestream committee meetings with only three council members abstaining from voting. Previously only two councillors supported the livestreaming of committee meetings with one councillor abstaining from voting.

In a meeting earlier this year, Okehampton Town Councillors decided that committee meetings — planning, parks, property and policy and resources committees — during which many policies are discussed in depth, would not be livestreamed with several councillors raising concerns that members might feel stifled and unable to raise more controversial opinions.

Though happy to raise controversial opinions herself, Cllr Jan Goffey explained that some councillors were more ‘camera conscious.’ She added: ‘It’s a good thing to stop and think [about what you’re saying] but...people can be less vocal.’

Any decision made by the council remains in place for a total of six months unless otherwise challenged by at least five councillors when the topic goes up for discussion again.

Okehampton Town Council currently livestreams all the full council meetings through its Facebook page, a decision made in April last year in order to increase transparency in local government. The first Okehampton council meeting livestreamed was last year’s Mayor Choosing event in May. West Devon Borough Council already livestreams all its meetings.

 During covid lockdowns, council meetings were held virtually through video-conferencing platform Zoom but this was subsequently unfeasible after restrictions were removed as pre-pandemic council meeting laws require councillors to meet in person. 

All meetings are open for the public to attend in person.